Japan’s Fukushima water plan dashes town’s hopes of world surfing event, but residents stay upbeat

Kitaizumi Surf Festival 2023 had hoped to draw 300 top surfers to compete and promote Fukushima prefecture’s recovery, but will now be a much smaller event

Despite a lack of official support, Minamisoma locals remain hopeful a successful surfing competition will bring visitors back

Reading Time:3 minutes

A surfer riding a wave in Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:00pm, 23 Jul 2023

The plan was ambitious: to invite 300 of the world’s top surfers to compete in a new tournament off Minamisoma’s Kitaizumi beach late this summer and attract thousands of tourists to a town about 30km north of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant that has struggled with retaining its residents and appealing to tourists.

Twelve years after the magnitude-9 earthquake, tsunami and meltdown of three of the plant’s six reactors, there was optimism that the Kitaizumi Surf Festival 2023 would put Minamisoma – and this part of northeast Japan – back on the map for positive reasons.

More than 500 local residents died as a result of the tsunami inundating the town’s coastal areas, with yet more still unaccounted for. Much of the local infrastructure, including schools, shops, hospitals and businesses were destroyed in the initial onslaught, although the impact of the nuclear crisis was arguably worse.

The town was ordered to evacuate in the hours after the reactors began to melt down. It was not until July 2016 that the evacuation order for the last remaining parts of the town was lifted. Even now, only a fraction of those who lived in Minamisoma before the tragedy have returned.

Hopes that the town would be able to use the surfing event to help rebuild their community have been dashed, however, by the Japanese government’s decision to start releasing water that has been treated for contamination with radionuclides from the Fukushima plant. Tokyo confirmed earlier this month it would press ahead with the discharge of 1.2 million tons of water after receiving the International Atomic Energy Agency’s support.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x